The present disclosure relates to a system, components and methodologies for improved presentation of available parking spaces. In particular, the present disclosure is directed to a system, components and methodologies that enable in-vehicle access to information from a plurality of parking information sources regarding the availability of parking spaces monitored by those sources.
The infrastructure for parking availability data is quickly developing in cities in the United States and elsewhere.
Conventional, real-time parking information is collected through sensors provided through systems such as Streetline or SFPark and aggregated to make availability information accessible to drivers. There are also some conventional approaches that correlate payment information with actual occupancy (e.g., ParkMe) or learn patterns of availability by interacting with a service (e.g., FasPark collecting information and enabling a user to search for parking using a mobile application).
In some cases, streets and parking garages are equipped with sensors that detect and report available parking spaces. However, the availability of parking data may not be generally known, and/or may be available from a plurality of sources and therefore difficult to compile, organize, and/or sort to reveal spaces that may be of interest to a particular driver on a particular occasion.
However, most geographical areas, and on most streets, there is still no real-time, parking availability information available to drivers.
Moreover, some of that data that is provided by these systems is updated only relatively infrequently, for example, on an hourly basis or more, while other data is kept current more frequently or even in real-time.